Vanvaas: 2024 Nana Patekar Hindi Drama Film, Trailer, Review

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Movie Name: Vanvaas
Directed by: Anil Sharma
Starring: Nana Patekar, Utkarsh Sharma, Simrat Kaur, Rajpal Yadav, Khushbu Sundar, Ashwini Kalsekar
Genre: Drama
Running Time: – Minutes
Release Date: 20 December, 2024
Rating:
Production Companies: Anil Sharma Productions
Budget: ₹55 crore

Vanvaas: Movie Profile

Vanvaas is an upcoming Indian drama film directed by Anil Sharma and produced by Anil Sharma and Suman Sharma under Anil Sharma Productions. The film is set to release on December 20, 2024, distributed worldwide by Zee Studios. Featuring an ensemble cast including Nana Patekar, Utkarsh Sharma, Simrat Kaur, and Rajpal Yadav, Vanvaas follows the emotional journey of an elderly man with dementia who is abandoned by his family and sets out to find them, with the help of a small-time thief he encounters.

The story centers around Deepak Tyagi, an elderly man suffering from dementia who wishes to go on a pilgrimage to Banaras. However, his family – comprising his three sons and their wives – see his illness as a burden and ultimately abandon him. Lost and vulnerable, Deepak meets Veeru, a petty thief whom he mistakes for a volunteer. Together, they embark on a journey to find Deepak’s family, developing an unexpected bond along the way.

Utkarsh Sharma, visited KIIT to promote the film. At the press conference, which followed a visit to Lord Jagannath’s temple in Puri. The film is scheduled to be theatrically released on 20 December 2024.

The music of Vanvas is composed by Mithoon. The first song from the film, “Yaadon Ke Jharokhon Se,” has been released and features the voices of Sonu Nigam and Shreya Ghoshal. The lyrics were written by Sayeed Quadri.

Vanvaas is scheduled for a theatrical release on December 20, 2024, with worldwide distribution managed by Zee Studios.

Movie Trailer:

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Movie Review:

Nana Patekar does the heavy lifting in this trite tearjerker

After striking a few high notes, Anil Sharma’s familiar take on the abuse of parents in old age suffers from staginess and predictability

Bollywood loves to recycle parental abuse almost every decade to create a tearjerker. Anil Sharma’s Vanvaas feels like a reincarnation of Avtaar (1983), Swarg (1990), and Baghban (2003), stories where a nurturing father suffers in his sunset years at the hands of his selfish sons.

Sharma who started his career with sensitive family dramas like Shradhanjali and Bandhan Kachche Dhagon Ka takes a break from the Gadar mayhem to revisit the familiar template that remains relevant for mainstream exploration. However, he has forgotten to adjust the volume of the background sound with the change in genre and update the formula for the times. Dated in design, theatrical in delivery, and tinged with patriarchal mores, it follows the predictable script where the parent is always a patriarch with property and the saviour is a male orphan with a heart of gold.

With little surprises in storytelling, it is left to the mercurial Patekar to do the heavy lifting. The seasoned performer embraces the quirks and quivers of Deepak Tyagi to generate an emotional bond with the audience. Carrying forward the model set by Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan, Patekar adds his magnetic appeal to create a moving picture of a strong father reduced to a fragile figure because of vanishing memory and fractured bonds. Supported by poetic monologues, penned by Sharma, he creates a poignant portrait of a withering soul in danger of losing the memories of his soulmate Vimala. Khusboo makes a rare special appearance in Hindi cinema and provides the emotional hook to the story. Left alone in Varanasi by his self-seeking sons and daughters-in-law, Deepak is about to be blown out when a playful crook Veeru (Utkarsh Sharma) lends him a hand.

The good thing is that Sharma attempts to reflect on the composite culture of Varanasi. Of course, there is iconography of Lord Shiva, Hanuman, and Ganga but Patekar also talks of the relevance of unionism and invokes Karl Marx in Varanasi. Sharma’s gaze travels beyond the ghats to give the audience a darshan of Buddha’s Sarnath. He also incorporates the nautch girl and nautanki culture of the region into the story and names his characters after iconic characters of Hindi films. There is a Veeru (Sholay), there is a Meena (Sharabi) and then there is a mausi (Ashwini Kalsekar) to create a powerful imagery of past and present but somehow barring a few evocative moments, the written word doesn’t translate to the screen.

Told from the point of view of parents, there is little space for shades in the black-and-white exploration of characters and events. Even the family audience of television, the space the film seems to be addressing, demands more layers in their stories these days. Sharma has dedicated the film to his parents and seems to have made it to project his son, Utkarsh. After hurrying through the family dynamics in Deepak’s home, the makers spend a lot of time in creating the world around Veeru which looks utterly staged. A work in progress, Utkarsh remains a satellite that needs a sun to reflect light.

In fact, there is a line in the film where Veeru’s beloved Meena, played by Simratt Kaur, urges him to learn how to express emotions from Deepak. When she says, “Inse seekh (learn from him)”, it feels like Meena is urging Utkarsh to learn from Patekar how to make the high-pitched melodrama believable.